Match Day Thread Watford v Saints, Tue 23rd March, 7:45pm

Oops yeah! Forgot to include him, he’s a keeper as well, although we are yet to see the best of him under Ralph.

Regardless, I think Ralph will get the best out of whatever side we have, which is such a good feeling

 

He doesn't seem to be the player he once was to me. Hope he gets back to his best!

 

What a difference from a simple switch of playing Bednarek on the right hand side.

Obviously the attitude and increased work rate were the main reasons for a far better performance tonight.

Such a shame we have no composure at the back. Once again we invited pressure by hacking and slicing away at clearances in some bizarre panic, even though Watford didn’t really look especially threatening.

Hopefully we can officially confirm safety at home on a beautiful summer afternoon at St Mary’s on Saturday

 

I’ve just asked the wife if she fancied a “Shane Long”

She was not impressed. Would have been a great 7 seconds too...

 

I know it's not a big shock that we failed to see out the win, but that's the 3rd PL game in a row against Watford where they have snatched the win from us in the last 10 mins ☹️

 

With the added incentive of trying to overtake the Mini-Skates to regain the South Coast Championship at the end of the season...

 

Yeah, there aren't too many players that are irreplaceable. But it still matters what we replace them with; sell Hojbjerg or some such and I think people will be entitled to scrutinize the replacement options.

 

where they have snatched the win from us
---------------

Fairly.....at least

 

Not sure how long this video will stay up but here goes...



Vin

 

Shane’s going to end up with two of the most played Saints goals videos ever isn’t he?

 

Well at least there isn’t time to stick the bloody Titanic music on tonight’s one!

 

We’ve got 33 senior pros in contract going into next season.
Ross Wilson will definitely earn his money this summer

 

One thing we learned today: all those times that we criticized Long's first touch? Turns out that his preference is that you boot it at his midsection really hard from close range.

 

Needs to work on his headers!

 

Factor in 5 or 6 new recruits, and we're looking at letting go about 15 players. How have we ended up with such a bloated squad?

 

Some truly awful signings, and a strange reticence to move on fringe players.

 

Got back from the game at midnight. Nice to see Saints live as tonight was only the third chance I’ve had to do that.

Thoughts on the game:

- We were great first half and should’ve scored more, final ball was not good enough and finishing could be better

- Second half Watford were the better team but we still had dangerous breakaways

- Ralph got his subs wrong. Sims was pretty ineffectual as he displayed no strength, taking Oriol off helped them win the midfield battle and made it far harder for us to calmly play out through the lines. Not replacing Long with a forward meant we had absolutely no outlet and no presence to contest the long balls we insisted on playing. I get why Valery came on though, JWP was getting shredded and was clearly knackered. I just don’t think replacing Oriol (despite his yellow) and not putting on Austin or Ings was a wise idea

- Ralph is doing very well with limited resources and a couple of knocks too, really enjoying his spell and just want next season to come so we can see what he’s capable of with some new recruits and a full pre-season

- Draw was a fair result and I would’ve taken it before the game, particularly with Vestergaard, Valery, Ings all missing from the starting team

- Really pleasing to see a committed and battling Saints team. Although we surrendered two points you can’t accuse us of not fighting anymore




Other than the actual game...

- Thought the support was good. Consistent singing throughout and HT was a lot of fun.

- On that note, WTF was going on?! An Elton John banner the size of the entire home end, an Elton John singalong - led by John Barnes - with printed song sheets in the home ends, and then Barnes doing a World in Motion performance. Utterly, utterly bonkers. Loved Charlie, Mario and Danny’s fun at half-time with the fans during all that

 

Please, no Friar Tuck.

 

Elton has a new film about his life coming out so we were advertising that and getting people to sing but we don't do that very well.

You were unlucky not to win - got the goal and could have scored more.

We didn't really test Gunn in goal.

 

I think it stems from the instances around Wanyama, Clyne & Mané, who all refused contract extensions, which put us at a disadvantage in sales negotiations.

Les changes tact, most new signings got four year deals, any player in the squad showing a bit of form or promise gets an extension.

Then we have a high turnover of managers, with different styles, who want different players and the bloated squad is a common side effect of that at most clubs, but was supposed to be one of the things that having a director of football would prevent.

Les has paid the price

Selling unwanted players on high salaries can be difficult, but I believe now the egos which bought them have gone, we’re more likely to accept their true market values